Our studies on virus and membrane assemblies are focused on visualizing their structures and on characterizing dynamic processes in their formation, action or breakdown. X-ray diffraction and electron microscopy supplemented by spectroscopic, hydrodynamic and chemical techniques provide the information about virus and membrane specimens from which answers to questions about their structural organization can be extracted. The systems currently being studied include: single crystals of polyoma capsids (and eventually intact virions); fibers of filamentous bacteriophage particles; solutions and microcrystals of southern bean mosaic virus; and oriented arrays of purified gap junction plaques. A major portion of the effort on this project is concentrated on developing and improving methods for collecting, processing, and interpreting information about the structure and dynamics of these and other interpreting information about the structure and dynamics of these and other macromolecular assemblies. New developments include methods for analysis of X-ray diffraction data from noncrystalline specimens and construction of one- and two-dimensional position sensitive X-ray detectors. The answers we seek will relate action and forces to the dynamics and stability of virus and membrane assemblies.